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The Telenovela is Born
The television industry in the United States had its start by the
late 1940's and by the late 1950's soap operas were already a key
component of daytime programming (Brown, 1994). As it happened with
radionovelas, there is an undeniable link between American televised
soap operas and their Latin American counterparts, the telenovelas.
However, researchers are quick to point out that even though Latin-American
telenovelas share a common origin with the American soap operas,
many differences abound, which make the telenovela a distinctive
narrative genre (Mattellart & Mattelart, 1990, Martin-Barbero,
1995, Lopez, 1995, Mazziotti, 1993). Comparing the two broadcast
dramas, it is noted that American soaps are life long engagements,
while Latin American telenovelas tend to have around 180-200 episodes,
with a well-delimited end (Lopez, 1991). American soaps were created
to target the female audience, housewives to be exact. To this day,
even though there has been a sharp increase of women working outside
the home, soap operas are still written as a gendered narrative,
formulated with relationship dramas to appeal to the female domestic
audience, which makes up to 80 percent of the market (Mattelart
& Mattelart, 1990; Harrington & Bielby, 1995). Again, this
may be changing as more soap operas are being geared towards teenagers.
In contrast, telenovelas had broadened their appeal to reach all
audiences. They are constructed to draw a diverse audience of men
and women of all ages. Because of this broad appeal, telenovelas
are shown on primetime television, usually five to six days a week,
while soaps are usually a daytime affair (Mattelart & Mattelart,
1995). Latin American telenovelas have therefore differentiated
themselves from the American soap operas and over time transformed
into a distinctive popular television genre.
The new popularized “reality television’ genre is beginning
to appear in Latin American TV. Telemundo began with “Protagonistas
de Novela”. It is not surprising that the theme was about
telenovelas. In this show, contestants lived together in a house
and competed for the prize of being a telenovela protagonist. The
public voted on the ones that better performed telenovelas scenes
the best. Many contestants from this show are now working as actors
and actresses on Telemundo productions.
Telenovelas in Latin America share common denominators, such as
the melodramatic storyline filled with characters that give life
not only to romance but also to everyday struggles (Straubhar &
Viscasillas; 1991, Mazziotti, 1992). However, while melodrama is
in the heart of every telenovela, distinct flavors and styles have
developed among the different Latin countries (Mazziotti, 1993).
In Mexico, telenovelas follow the melodramatic tradition of the
Cuban radionovelas, they tend to have a main protagonist couple
living a romance that will have to battle many difficulties, such
as class differences, secrets about the family of origin or a villain
that will do anything to break the couples apart. The characters
are usually well-defined representations of good or evil; there
is no room for questionable human moments of bad and good contradictions
(Martín-Barbero, 1992). Brazilian telenovelas on the other
hand, have multiple and secondary storylines, allowing the author
to create stories within the story (Mazziotti, 1993).
Aufdeheid (1993) described Latin American television as filled with
humor, social relevance and national cultural style. He points out
that Brazilian novelas have dealt with government corruption, single
motherhood, and environmental problems, while Mexican novelas have
displayed class differences. Lopez (1995) characterizes the Mexican
novelas as the weepers, with no context provided. The intentional
use of a "generic" space, that is, the unidentifiable
location of Mexican soaps is a devise to provide audiences around
the world with the fantasy that the plot might as well be happening
in their neighborhood. Martín-Barbero (1995) corroborates
this description adding that while the Mexican telenovela takes
place in a particular country, it does not correspond to any national
reality, and it seems to float above the immediacy of everyday life.
Lopez (1995) adds that Colombian telenovelas are more of a humoristic
genre with emphasis on the context, while Brazilian novelas are
the most realistic, with clear historical narratives, and time and
space context is easily identified. In Peru, there is an attempt
to mix the romantic characteristics with significant social themes
(Quiroz, 1993).
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